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Monday, November 6 11:25 PM SGT

Kostunica grapples with war crimes in Yugoslavia (excerpts)

BELGRADE, Nov 6 (AFP)

"The first move would be to "enable" the
ICTY to open its office in Yugoslavia, and "together
with our investigators, collect crimes that can be found
on our territory," Svilanovic said."

President Vojislav Kostunica has agreed to allow the UN war
crimes tribunal to open an office in Belgrade and plans to set up
a truth commission to deal with Yugoslavia's wartime past, the
foreign minister said Monday. (1)

"We cannot and we should not avoid facing the
consequences of war and responsibility for crimes," Foreign
Minister Goran Svilanovic was quoted by the Beta news agency as
saying.

Kostunica told visiting Austrian Foreign Minister Benita
Ferrero-Waldner that the decision to allow the war crimes
tribunal office to open did not indicate a shift in position over
the fate of Slobodan Milosevic, wanted for trial for crimes
against humanity, an Austrian diplomat said. (2)

Kostunica reiterated that he had other priorities than to hand
over the former Yugoslav president for trial at the Hague-based
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY),
said the diplomat.

The diplomat said Kostunica had indicated that it was more
important for the country to tackle "its current severe
economic problems" than handing Milosevic over to the ICTY.

In talks with Ferrero-Waldner, who currently heads the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
Kostunica said he was "ready to accept the opening of an
ICTY bureau in Belgrade," said the diplomat.

The people of Yugoslavia should be informed about "everything
that was done either in the name of alleged Serb national
interests or against the Serb people," said Svilanovic, who
was appointed as part of the new government on the weekend.

The first move would be to "enable" the ICTY to open
its office in Yugoslavia, and "together with our
investigators, collect crimes that can be found on our territory,"
Svilanovic said. (3)

"The second step would be to form a truth commission,
comprising people of full confidence of our public," he
said, adding that such findings should be followed by "establishing
concrete responsibility and trials in the territory of our
country."

Such a commission would be based on one established in South
Africa after the end of apartheid, which probed human rights
abuses under apartheid and recommended reparations for victims.